tumi

I've been on enough of these charters to have a good sense of what the cruise line will do and what the charter company will do. I won't speculate on the specifics. In most cases, I've been very pleased with the experience and could not care less about the politics or relationship between the two companies.

My intent was only to point out to Seabourn that there's a lot of room for improvement in this area. It is interesting to hear if others have had less than desirable experiences with the customer service phone line at Seabourn. If I remember correctly when I called the line a couple years ago about my previous cruise, I spoke to an agent who was exceedingly pleasant. Believe me, I set my expectations very low when calling any cruise line about information on a charter. I understand there is limited information for a variety of reasons. Apparently, I still expected a bit more from Seabourn in this particular situation.

Everything about the product from this cruise line is desirable to my consumer sensibilities and I want to see them succeed. I really loved my first Seabourn cruise and suspect that I will return again and again as the opportunity presents itself.

(Thanks Dan - I couldn't be more excited about this cruise and plan to have a wonderful time!)

I'm a little horrified at the experience I just had with the Seabourn customer service line. I have an existing reservation and am fully registered for an upcoming cruise and just called the number to ask about the booking and information that I'm seeing online.

After waiting on hold for several minutes (not exceptionally long, but still a wait) I spoke with Ken. It was a very strange call because he seemed to get immediately defensive about my questions. I stated that I was registered and had questions about the shore excursion information that I see online. He somehow immediately identified my sailing as a charter sailing and refused any further information. It was awkward and unexpected. I fully understand that a charter may have limited information; however, this attitude on the phone was unacceptable.

I've never had a customer service agent want to get off the phone so promptly. He never asked to review my name, reservation or checkin information. He didn't even wish me a pleasant cruise. He never once thanked me for choosing their ship. I would actually expect a self described "ultra-luxury" line to ask for my full name and booking number and see immediately that this is the second time that I've chosen to cruise with them. I find it unbelievable that he wouldn't have access to that basic detail.

To add to the awkward nature of the call, it sounded like I was speaking to someone at home with kitchen noise in the background. There was no offer to transfer me to an excursions desk and he wouldn't assist with a spa reservation. There was no offer to answer other questions about the cruise. All very strange.

More than anything else, I would expect superior customer service from Seabourn. Regardless of what the customer service line can do for me, I would expect to hear an exceptional level of phone etiquette when speaking to a customer. I sincerely hope that someone at Seabourn can pull the recording of my phone conversion with their agent. I was so surprised by the attitude of the agent on the line that I could barely think of the reason I called in the first place. Maybe these services should be outsourced to a more friendly set of agents who smile more often and offer recommendations for issue resolution. I'll also add that regardless of what the issue may be, it's not a classy solution to attempt to blame the chartering company. Finger pointing is never a good answer.